The New York Rangers have finally found their head coach, but how much work did it take for Jeff Gorton to convince David Quinn to actually take the job?
The New York Rangers pursuit of David Quinn was one that required a significant amount of patience and persistence from general manager Jeff Gorton.
According to Renaud Lavoie of the Journal de Montreal, Quinn had actually rejected the Rangers offer two weeks ago, but could not do it a second time.
“After rejecting the Rangers’ offer 14 days ago, Quinn was not able to resist the second”
Quinn will be reportedly making $2.4 million to man the Rangers bench, a significant pay raise from $600,000, a funded expense count, and a car according to Lavoie. The money was just too much for Quinn to say no the Blueshirts.
One would most definitely think that it would be extremely difficult to reject. With that kind of money, on top of the chance to coach on one of the biggest stages the hockey world has to offer, how do you say no?
The 51-year-old had every intention of returning to Boston University this year a source told Larry Brooks of the NY Post. But for some reason, Quinn never pulled his name out of the running to be the Rangers new bench boss another source told Brooks.
Brooks also reported that Gorton had every intention of interviewing a few more candidates later on this week. Gorton was reportedly looking at coaches in both the AHL and NHL that were either just eliminated, or still going on in the playoffs.
Quinn was one of the first candidates that Gorton had reached out to when the interviewing process began, according to Neal E. Boudette of the NY Times. We do not have a specific number of candidates that Gorton interviewed, but it is believed that newly hired Jim Montgomery of the Dallas Stars was also interviewed.
It’s expected that the Rangers will announce the Quinn hiring as early as this week.
